cwwmbm

All things being equal, which would you prefer - BA or Finnair business class for TATL travel?

BA would mean layover in LHR. Finnair would mean layover in ORD, possibly with going through TSA? Not sure - the flight is from Canada. Finnair would be ~6 hours longer all in, but I'm assuming lounge situation in HEL is decent.

Miles would be credited to AAdvantage.

Gardyloo

What's your final destination? If connecting in the USA you'd go through US CBP pre-clearance at either YVR or YYZ. If the BA option is straight from Canada, I'd use it rather than laying over at ORD or JFK for an AY flight. The lounges at HEL are nice, but so are the BA lounges at LHR.

For in-flight, it's been some time since I rode AY J longhaul. It was okay, nothing too memorable. BA is a well known product, not my fave but certainly tolerable for a quickish TATL overnight.

cwwmbm

Russia


So, it's either Canada - LHR - HEL - Russia, or Canada - ORD - HEL - Russia.

I think I'll go with the BA option - the overall flight time is 6 hours less, no need to clear US immigration, etc.

chrisny2

Probably a good move. I really like Finnair, but not enough more than BA to make it worth 6 additional hours and dealing with U.S. CBP.

IanFromHKG

Depending on where in Russia, you might be better on Finnair. The problem with BA (well, one of the problems with BA) is the bum-numbing, knee-crushing seat on the "short-haul" flight from LHR to wherever-it-is-in-Russia. I have flown Finnair several times from HKG to LHR via HEL - the long-haul part is fine, so is HEL airport, but the connection from HEL to LHR is... well... hell. And it is three and a half hours. Whereas the flight from HEL to St Petersburg (for instance) is just 1 hour and 10 minutes. The Finnair flight will get you one helluva lot closer to Russia in TATL-business comfort as opposed to short-haul "business" misery. Remember that in European short-haul there is no proper business class seat - they just leave the middle set of each row of three empty. And on BA, the seat pitch is just 31 inches.

If you are set on flying via LHR, have you considered AA? Provided you get on the 777-300ER, the seat is MILES better than BA's.